In this specification where a document, act or item of knowledge is referred to or discussed, this reference or discussion is not an admission that the document, act or item of knowledge or any combination thereof was at the priority date, publicly available, known to the public, part of common general knowledge, or otherwise constitutes prior art under the applicable statutory provisions; or is known to be relevant to an attempt to solve any problem with which this specification is concerned.
Currently, commercially available glucose monitoring systems typically contain a number of separate components. Namely, separate lancing devices for creating a droplet of blood on the skin, test strips, and a meter configured to receive one test strip at a time. A test strip is inserted into the meter before or after the skin is lanced with the separate lancing device, then the strip is maneuvered into contact with the droplet of blood on the surface of the skin. The strip absorbs the blood, then the blood is analyzed by the strip/meter to determine the concentration of glucose contained therein.
Many of these devices allow people with diabetes to mark an individual glucose measurement to associate the result with a particular meal, or meal-time. For example, the meter might allow a user to, after a result is displayed on the meter, associate that result with “breakfast”. If a user diligently marked their results associating them with the appropriate meal-time, then a user's health care provider may be able to analyze the data looking for trends in measurement that can be used to adjust the delivery time and dosage of any treatments provided (e.g., insulin). In current commercially available devices, this marking procedure must be initiated by the user.
It should be noted that another deficiency of current commercially available meters is that the available marking options are is imprecise. In particular, a person with diabetes will experience rises in glucose levels following the consumption of food. For a health care provider to make appropriate adjustments in treatments, they need to understand if particular results came before or following meals (pre or post-prandial). While there are some devices that allow for marking of results directly on the analyte monitor, it is also quite common to use a paper “logbook” to track individual results. However, it is not sufficient to only associate a particular result with a particular meal. Instead, in order to more accurately interpret and utilize the test results, it should be associated with a time period before or after a particular meal.
Additional problems with current technology include:
patient compliance—many patients find marking meals confusing and simply choose not to mark any meals, or worse, will mark, perhaps without even realizing it, individual results as being associated with a particular meal when in fact the test did not actually occur before or after a meal.
lack of data, or inaccurate data, can lead to less than optimal treatment plans, or even worse risk of harm to the patient if too much or too little treatment (drugs, insulin etc.) are provided.
data accuracy—it is quite easy to make mistakes in marking meals using currently commercially available meters.
the process for marking directly on the device is not intuitive, users must initiate the marking process, which typically involves the need to memorize a long system of key/button presses or a need to consult their users guide for directions.
when using paper and pencil a user can transcribe the result incorrectly, or write the result in the wrong section of the logbook. Also, such information cannot be easily transferred or shared with health care professionals.
marking a test as only generally being associated with a particular meal does not provide fully accurate, useful information.
time—people with diabetes can spend a significant amount of time searching for logbooks, or re-reading instructions to understand how to mark meals.
safety—incomplete or inaccurate data can lead to mistakes in treatment harming patients.
While certain aspects of conventional technologies have been discussed to facilitate disclosure of the invention, Applicants in no way disclaim these technical aspects, and it is contemplated that the claimed invention may encompass or include one or more of the conventional technical aspects discussed herein.